Understanding Ion Project Registry Locations

Before looking at deployment specifics for enterprise client systems, it is important to understand methodologies for deploying configurations on test systems during configuration development. Ion makes it easy to test a configuration without requiring a centralized deployment methodology. This is done via the Start Test Configuration option from the File menu of Ion Configuration Manager.

This option saves the project file to disk, places a pointer to the file in the system registry, and start the Browsium Controller to process the new configuration. The pointer is written to the LoadFromFileName registry value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\(Wow6432Node)\Browsium\Ion.

Start Test Configuration should only be used for project development and testing as it requires Ion Configuration Manager which should never be made available to end users. In addition, the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\(Wow6432Node)\Browsium\Ion registry location should only be used for testing as it is easily overwritten by Ion Configuration Manager and may not persist during a Browsium Client upgrade.

The last concept that must be understood before embarking on an Ion deployment is the precedence hierarchy for the evaluation of configurations when multiple LoadFromFileName values are found on a system. Ion follows this hierarchy to load the configuration that will be used on a given end user system (and on test systems). Once a valid configuration is found, Ion will stop searching and that configuration will be used.

Deploying different Ion configurations using multiple methodologies on a single PC may cause unpredictable results as only the configuration highest in the hierarchy will be used.

The following table provides the hierarchy of Ion configuration precedence. The string “(Wow6432Node)” in the registry path denotes the Wow6432Node registry key that will be included in the path on 64-bit Windows systems. 32-bit Windows systems do not contain this key, hence the use of parentheses in the chart.

Global Java Profiles and the Block Unmanaged Java setting create Java Deployment Rule Set files in system directories and therefore must be read from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Browsium Controller will not load Ion projects containing these settings from HKEY_CURRENT_USER and an error will be logged in Event Viewer.

Working with Test Configurations in Group Policy Environments

Understanding configuration loading hierarchy is critical to ensuring configurations load as expected during project development. Testing on systems that receive a LoadFromFileName value via Group Policy may not behave as expected.

Ion reads LoadFromFileName from the Test Configuration location prior to Group Policy locations to ensure that the project you are testing is used by Browsium Controller. However, as soon as you Clear Test Configuration, the configuration deployed via Group Policy will become the active project. This will make it difficult to compare your new Test Configuration with a native, unmanaged environment. To achieve a clean Ion test system, you must remove your system from the domain, exclude it from Ion project file Group Policy settings, or temporarily delete the LoadFromFileName value delivered by Group Policy. (It will return on the next Group Policy refresh.)

Browsium recommends testing Ion on systems that are not controlled by Ion project file Group Policy settings to avoid configuration conflicts.

Testing on Multi-user Server Systems

As mentioned previously, Ion Configuration Manager should be installed only for administrators and project developers — not for end users. However, this creates a challenge when working on a multi-user server system, such as a Citrix XenDesktop, VM Horizon or Microsoft Terminal Server environment.

Start Test Configuration writes to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive so that all Ion features are functional during project development and testing. (Global Java Profiles and Block Unmanaged Java settings cannot be read from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive.) This means the Ion configuration will be deployed for all users on a multi-user system if any user with administrator privileges uses Start Test Configuration from Ion Configuration Manager. Therefore, Browsium recommends that project development and testing be performed on a single-user system only.

Start Test Configuration in Ion Configuration Manager always writes to the shared HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive on a multi-user system.

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